Real Dictators - Colonel Gaddafi Part 3: Vengeance Day

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

Muammar Gaddafi can’t quite believe his luck. Still in his twenties, he finds himself leader of an oil-rich country. The Colonel wastes no time kicking out the Americans and the Brits. He instigates a 'Vengeance Day' to deal with Libya’s colonial oppressors. Living standards soar for ordinary Libyans. But the cracks are already appearing. Things are about to spin off in a very different direction... For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. In the medinas, the mosques and the souks, Gaddafi's arrival as the new Libyan leader is generally welcome. It's a relief. Crowds throng the streets of Tripoli to greet him,

to get a glimpse of their new saviour. After Libya's long history of colonial rule, this feels, finally, like an act of self-determination. The old king was the puppet of the West. His court was corrupt. Everyone knew that. Yet here is a young man, a Libyan, not a foreigner, nor one imposed by foreigners.

Gaddafi is one of them, a man from humble origins, religious, devout, not from the accursed elite. Yes, Gaddafi may speak in slogans, couching his policies in fashionable revolutionary rhetoric, but the thrust of it makes sense. Libya is no longer a monarchy, Gaddafi proclaims. It is now a Libyan Arab Republic. His mission statement is simple.

a Libyan Arab Republic. His mission statement is simple, to build a society over which shall flutter the banner of brotherhood and equality. With the people on his side, Libya, Gaddafi decrees, for the first time, will be for the Libyans. Welcome back to Real Dictators. In this episode, we return to Libya for the third part of the Colonel Gaddafi story.

At just 27 years old, Gaddafi has seized power in a bloodless coup without a shot being fired. Not even in his wildest dreams could his ascent to power have proceeded so smoothly. But now having reached the top at such a precocious age, Gaddafi must face up to the realities of exercising power. Can Gaddafi govern? Or will his rule prove to be a flash in the pan? Let's find out. For many young Libyans, and old as well, he echoed nationalist aspirations. He came from a very humble background, and he was a junior officer, along with others who took part in the bloodless coup. The style he assumed also was popular.

He was keen on talking to people, ordinary people, in different settings and gatherings. He moved all over the country. And I think by comparison, no Libyan politician or leader has ever known Libya in the way as Gaddafi had done. He literally visited every corner in the country, every small town or village, and he talked directly to people, he visited them in their own homes. The promises were great,

and the achievements, at least in the first few years, were great on the front of economic and social development. In terms of domestic policy, Gaddafi gets off to an impressive start. His first order of business is to expunge any notion of colonial rule. It will prove to be a popular move. After World War II, as part of their friendship treaties, Britain and America had brokered an agreement to maintain military bases on Libyan soil. The British at Tobruk, the Americans at Wilas. Gaddafi rips up these agreements. He demands that they begin a strategic withdrawal.

The armed forces which rose to express the people's revolution will not tolerate living in their shacks while the bases of imperialism exist in Libyan territory, he bellows. Ronald Bruce St. John, regional expert and affiliate professor at Bradley University. So you had two base agreements, 1953-1954 by Great Britain and the United States. agreements 1953-1954 by Great Britain and the United States. Those agreements provided for those countries to extend economic and military aid to the monarchy in return for having air facilities in Libya. In the 1950s that source of economic aid in particular was an indispensable source of income for the monarchy. Very, very, very poor country, limited exports of any kind, so they were largely dependent on the payments from the base agreements. Now that situation changed in the 1960s. By the mid-1960s we have an enormous amount of money being generated by oil. In that same time frame, we have a growing feeling of Arab nationalism,

anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and so forth. So when Qaddafi comes to power in September of 1969, one of his first policy objectives is to cancel the base agreements. Now, the base agreements were due to expire in a few months in 1970, but Gaddafi wanted to push the date of the departure of Great Britain and the United States so that he could use that as a weapon to increase support for his regime. It's a bit of a fudge, in other words. The Westerners were departing anyway,

but the optics are good. The British will leave in March 1970, the Americans in June. Gaddafi is more direct, more vengeful, with Libya's population of 25,000 Italians. To him, and many Libyans, they are a vestige of the hated Mussolini era. They must pack their bags immediately and leave the country. Gaddafi declares it Vengeance Day, a public holiday, and turns Tripoli's Catholic cathedral into a mosque.

He later blows up Mussolini's triumphal marble arch. Next, Gaddafi addresses the question of oil. Under King Idris, companies like British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, and Amoco have had a free hand. such as Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Amoco have had a free hand. The minute the Revolutionary Command Council got the base issue resolved, they turned to the oil issue. Gaddafi gave a speech in which he said that the oil prices in existence were completely unfair and we're going to fix it. By December of 1969, the Revolutionary Command Council had opened negotiations with

the major oil producers in Libya with a goal to increase the posted price of oil. Exactly one year after the Free Union's officers seized power, Occidental Petroleum, followed by other producers in Libya, agreed to a 30 cents a barrel price increase in Libya. And it was quickly followed by similar price increases elsewhere. So what was the lesson learned? The lesson learned was that the hardline policy of the Revolutionary Grand Council ended the myth that oil producers alone could set the posted price of oil. It will take 18 months to resolve a complicated financial settlement.

But by March 1971, Gaddafi will strike the Tripoli Agreement. This brings the foreign-owned petrochemical industry into Libyan control, either by nationalizing companies or by striking special deals. This is no mean feat. Libya is the world's fifth biggest supplier of crude oil. The foreign stake is not given up lightly. Within the first year, one billion dollars of extra revenue will flow into the Libyan economy,

a staggering sum for its time, and for such a small nation. When Gaddafi negotiates these deals, his boardroom etiquette, it must be said, doesn't always conform to convention. At the first sit-down between American diplomats and the Gaddafi regime, all of the Libyans came armed armed and they put their weapons on the negotiating table in a bit of intimidation or attempted intimidation. That didn't go down well with the Americans.

Ordinary Libyans are about to take a quantum leap in living standards. Over the following decade, Libyan GDP will grow by 800%. Average earnings will rise from a mere $40 per annum in 1969 to over $8,000 in 1979. Higher than Italy, higher than Britain. Who's laughing now?

Gaddafi lowers rents by 40% too. Well-paid jobs are suddenly plentiful. During his rule, literacy will rise from 10 to 88%. Life expectancy will shoot up from age 57 to 74. Infant mortality tumbles. There is a conservatism to some of Gaddafi's social reforms, now based on Islamic Sharia law Alcohol is banned, traditional dress is encouraged

Christian churches are shut down Adulterers and homosexuals are to be flogged But truth be told, while the money is flowing and Libya's infrastructure is improving Most people don't seem too bothered. Elsewhere, Gaddafi's policies are surprisingly progressive. Ahead of many Western countries, he passes a law affirming sexual equality and wage parity for women. Marriage for females under 16 is now illegal. No union can take place without a woman's consent.

To your average Libyan, Gaddafi is a revelation. Libyan writer Juma Bouklip. Things changed when Libya started exporting oil. Our incomes increased. My father started working, getting regular salary. We moved to a nice flat and we started feeling life, feeling we are human beings living healthy, nicely, enjoying life. To be honest, most Libyan people were happy to have Gaddafi. At this very moment, Gaddafi is in his element.

The dashing young colonel has attained rock star status. He even makes the cover of Time magazine. North Africa analyst, Alison Pargetta. There was a lot of promise and a lot of hope. It wasn't really a popular revolution. People didn't know who he was, but he was welcomed and given space when he first came to power but unfortunately you know things took a different turn from the director of the greatest showman comes the most original musical ever.

I want to prove I can make it. Prove to who? Everyone. So, the story starts. Better Man, now playing in select theaters. With TD Direct Investing, you can get live support. So whether you need help buying a partial share from your favorite tech company,

opening a TFSA, or learning about investing tools, we're here to help. But keeping your cat off your keyboard? That's up to you. Reach out to TD Direct Investing today and make your investing steps count. Plus, enjoy 1% cash back. Conditions apply. Offer ends January 31, 2025. Visit td.com slash dioffer to learn more. Gaddafi seems unstoppable.

But then, tragedy strikes. On September the 28th, 1970, terrible news arrives at Gaddafi's door. At an Arab League summit, his old hero, Nasser, has died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack, aged just 52. Admittedly, there is a silver lining. Nasser's funeral in Cairo is a huge event. On October 1, 1970, at least 5 million people throng the streets in a frenzy of despair. In the front ranks of mourners stands one Colonel Gaddafi.

Dressed in his khaki uniform, metal ribbons emblazoned on his chest, handkerchief pressed to his face, Gaddafi faints conspicuously for the cameras. Not once, but twice. It is his moment. His virtual anointing as NASA's true heir. The new leader of the Arab world. Or so he thinks. If Gaddafi had stopped here, he might have gone down as a liberator.

A romantic revolutionary. His name written in the stars, his face could have been on student posters, on t-shirts, his image as iconic as that of Che Guevara. But Gaddafi doesn't stop here. This is as good as it gets. For the Libyans now living under his rule,

and for the international community at large, things are about to spin off in a very different direction. At the beginning, the scene is set for something really fantastic. It looks as though things are going to improve for the better. Gaddafi had this idealised view of society, this utopian idea that was based on a kind of socialism with an Islamic tinge, if you like, where everybody was going to be freed from servitude and money was going to be shared around. And he was going to create a wealthy, prosperous society. But unfortunately, various things took over, including Gaddafi's own personality and desire for power and this sense that he's somehow bigger than Libya.

He had these greater ideals. He saw himself as a great intellectual with ideas to offer the world. And Libya wasn't really big enough for him. And so it's not long before he starts to veer off on his own. He increasingly moves away from the others that he carried out the revolution with and heads off on his own very bizarre path and beginning of four decades of taking the country through car crash policies that absolutely destroyed what should have been a prosperous state. Gaddafi has insisted throughout his ascent to power that he is an entirely benevolent figure.

It is the people who are in charge, he declares, not me. I am merely a conduit for their wishes. It's not until five months after Gaddafi's coup that he reveals, in full, the identities of his twelve-strong Revolutionary Command Council. His aim is to create an impression of humble functionalism. is to create an impression of humble functionalism. In reality, Gaddafi is concentrating power in himself. Gaddafi's old friend, Jaloud, is made deputy leader of the RCC. Another friend, Suleiman Maghribi, becomes his first prime minister.

Already it's becoming clear that Gaddafi intends to dominate Libyan politics. The members of the Revolutionary Command Council soon begin to find their old army buddy frustrating, even disrespectful. The camaraderie they enjoyed as young pretenders to power is gone. Gaddafi humiliates political rivals and colleagues in public. He turns up late to appointments, sometimes by hours. He regularly schedules meetings for 2am, his detractors struggling to stay awake as he sets forth his demands. In some committees, it's rumoured that when there are challenges to his decisions,

Gaddafi is not slow to draw his pistol. During the coup, many assumed that military governance was temporary. The belief was that civilian rule would soon be restored. But the evidence is mounting. It's never going to happen. All the while, Gaddafi is shoring up his own position on the international stage. His regime is swiftly endorsed by his Arab neighbors, whom he repays with financial generosity. For their part, the Western powers are terrified of a power vacuum in Libya. They are also mindful of those precious oil supplies. Before long, many in the West recognized Gaddafi's regime too. The CIA even promised to give him a heads-up on any counter-coup. For now, though,

no serious revolt is forthcoming. Not in these early days. At home, at first, it's the little things. In May 1970, trade unions are banned. In August 1971, a military court tries tribal leaders for reported counter-revolutionary activity. In November 1971, King Idris is sentenced to death in absentia. In 1972, workers' strikes are banned and newspapers suspended. Pro-monarchist politicians and journalists are rounded up. Another aspect of the political system, I think, that's important for people to understand is that Gaddafi, because he was so focused on control, banned all civic organizations in Libya from the get-go. banned all civic organizations in Libya from the get-go. There were no school teachers' organizations,

independent trade unions, political parties. None of those were allowed in Gaddafi's Libya. And in fact, no grouping of more than three people was allowed in Gaddafi's Libya. You know, and this was all designed or intended to prevent any kind of opposition of any sort developing. At the same time, Gaddafi is proving sensitive. He's prone to throwing hissy fits.

In October 1971, he berates the public for their failure to get fully on board with his vision and stomps off to the desert. In 1972 he resigns from office, claiming to be dissatisfied with the pace of reform. He returns within a month, strolling back in as if nothing had happened. In February 1973 he does the same thing again, abandoning his post in a huff, slamming the tent door, as it were. If he must prove his worth to anyone, it will not be to the Revolutionary Committee, he says. He will put his fate in the hands of the Libyan people.

On April 16, 1973, in a speech at the city of Zuwara, he blindsides even his closest advisors. Gaddafi announces that Libya is to undergo a new political transformation, a new revolution. It comes with a five-point plan, declaring, amongst other things, that laws are to be dissolved, opponents are to be removed, and poisonous foreign influences are to be obliterated. Necessary measures are to be taken against perverts and deviators. And on top of that, the citizens are to be armed. This new revolution will be protected by the people. Gaddafi, from the very beginning, had a wide-reaching socioeconomic and political revolution in mind.

I mean, this wasn't just a coup d'etat. This was going to be the outset of a wide-reaching revolution. Staying in power becomes the number one priority because you can't launch the revolution if you don't stay in power. So in April 1973 he launched what he called the popular revolution, which at the time consisted of the creation of a rather vague system of people's congresses and people's committees throughout the country. In the end of the day, you would get to, at the very top, the General People's Congress with General People's Committee.

The whole idea was to create mobilization, participate, greater participation in the system. But at the same time, it also offered a means of surveillance for the government to control, maintain control over the people. Professor Yousef Sawani, director of the Center for Arab Studies in Beirut. Of course, the 1973 cultural or popular revolution that Gaddafi announced from the coastal city of Zuwara in the western part of Libya was a major development in his political strategy. There were some parts of it that were somehow positively received, because I think they reflected some elements within the Bedouin popular culture, and those included an attitude that despised governments. And I think Gaddafi, when he announced the dissolution of government bureaucracy

and setting up popular committees to run the country instead, struck a chord with this element within popular culture. But the concern came when part of the cultural or popular revolution was focused on eliminating any kind of opposition. And I think this is where parts of the population, especially the intellectuals and activists of the time, including members of some political parties, were greatly concerned because that was a sign

that the new government is not ready to accept any kind of opposition. And that opposition would be not only ruled out or forbidden, but that those who may be involved in many acts of opposition will be liquidated. This is not just a popular revolution. It's a cultural revolution. For once, Gaddafi is not imitating Nasser.

Rather, he's following in the footsteps of China's Chairman Mao. In 1975, Gaddafi produces a manual to go with it. Not a little red book like Mao, but a little green book. Three volumes of it. In these publications, Gaddafi expounds a brand new philosophy that he himself has devised. He calls it the third universal theory. It's supposedly a middle way between capitalism and communism. The green books, there are three of them. They're very small little books, one on politics and one on society and one on economics,

in just very loose general terms. But that then became the Bible for the political system which Gaddafi was setting up. Those sort of ideologues who really followed his ideas would be rewarded with farms and lots of things like that. But in general, I think that people thought it was absolutely ridiculous and nonsense. If you try to read the Green Book, I mean, it's a totally bizarre little text, sort of idealised utopian vision, but a lot of it is gobbledygook

and it can't make much sense out of it. But Gaddafi, he saw it as credible vision and philosophy for life. He called it the new gospel, in fact. The Green Book is a jumbled rehash of pre-existing political philosophies. Gaddafi's meditations on Islam, socialism, revolution, plus some additional musings for good measure, on horsemanship, on menstruation, on ventilation in restaurants. Around the country, huge murals appear,

portraits of the Little Green Book's distinguished author, Gaddafi the father, Gaddafi the soldier, Gaddafi in sunglasses, thinking profound thoughts. It was a way of tightening his grip on power, because by that point he was already sort of moving away from the others, expecting them to follow his rules. If they didn't do things that he wanted, he would have tantrums and sulks, and he'd clear off to the desert for two or three days until people did what he wanted. So it was the beginning of really setting his ideas into motion and imposing himself. In schools, there are scenes straight out of George Orwell. Children chant the new gospel slogans. That representation is fraud.

That man is enslaved. And that the three great prophets of modern times came from the desert, Muhammad, Jesus, and Gaddafi. Writer and reporter, Derek Henry Flood. The Green Book was meant to be the foundational text of the post-war, post-colonial Libyan state. What it ended up being seen was basically a literary blanket of oppression. It became a symbol of Gaddafi's madness. It's sort of an amalgamation of ideas that I think he thought made him sound important. In domestic policy, Gaddafi had, at least

initially, shown a certain clarity, a sense of direction. But the same could never be said for international affairs. To be fair, it's not easy. There never has been an independent Libya. It has never acted upon the international stage on its own terms. independent Libya, it has never acted upon the international stage on its own terms. Unfortunately there is no privilege of a learning curve. Libya, embodied by Gaddafi, acts like a man paroled after a lifetime in solitary confinement. There is no experience of interaction, no understanding of societal rules, the conventions, the norms, the accepted behavior. There's no awareness of the division between defending national interest and aggression,

between diplomacy and hostility. Gaddafi declares an Arab Revolutionary Front, in which Libya, Egypt, Sudan, then Syria, pledged to merge into a unified state. The other leaders humour him, at least at first. But Egypt's president, Anwar Sadat, in particular gets cold feet, preferring a more federal arrangement. Gaddafi had expected to come to power and then all the other Arab leaders were all going to fall at his feet

and he's not going to be part of this new Arab nationalist bloc, if you like. But I think other Arab leaders very quickly saw him as a liability. This crazy young kid who was inexperienced and they didn't take very kindly to him. The bigger problem is this. Nasser's world vision, his teachings, were hatched in 1952, in the chaos of the post-war years. The 1970s are a different kettle of fish. Gaddafi is working to cliff notes that are well out of date. Now, what happened with the Egyptian revolution was, at the time Gaddafi was getting involved with it and knowledgeable about it and studying it, that was 10 years later. And Gaddafi didn't see some of the weaknesses that had begun to appear

in the revolution in terms of support and economic policy and a lot of different things. And many observers then said Libyan revolution is anachronistic because it's following a model which has proved to be successful in some areas but not so successful in many others. There is always the old fallback. Israel. A bit of tub-thumping about the evils of the Jewish state and of Zionism that always goes down well.

It's a handy rallying point. A way for Gaddafi to give himself a shot of political adrenaline as and when he needs it. Since its creation in 1948, Israel has been under near permanent siege, militarily, politically, economically, by its Arab neighbors. The question of the displaced Palestinian population has become incendiary, to say the least. Israel has proved to be no slouch. It beat an alliance of Arab states in a military conflict right at the outset. In 1967, in the Six Days War,

it triumphed again, seizing extensive territory. The Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank. Later, in 1973, in what will become known as the Yom Kippur War, Israel will consolidate its gains. Libya is a member of OPEC, the group of oil-producing nations. They are at the vanguard of an oil embargo placed upon the United States for its part in supporting Israel. This prompts price hikes and an international crisis. But Israel is going nowhere.

The smarter statesmen know it. nowhere. The smarter statesmen know it. And to Gaddafi's horror, there is rumor that the infernal Sadat will soon seek accommodation, peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state. The fact that there had been a regime change by death in Cairo with the rise of Anwar al-Sadat, that was something where Gaddafi was then kind of free-floating at the time because Gaddafi was trying to be a Libyan Nasirist. And with the death of Nasir and the rise of Anwar al-Sadat next door, that kind of changed the calculus for Pan-Arabism in North Africa because Anwar al-Sadat had a much different style of rule than Nasir. Anwar al-Sadat had a much different style of rule than Nasser. Anwar al-Sadat was kind of a soft Islamist

who later made peace with Israel. And so I think that's why Gaddafi has all these different incarnations throughout his rule. Part of that is because his idol, his hero, died at the outset of his regime after he'd taken power in Tripoli. Gaddafi takes the view that hatred of Israel should be fundamental to an Arab's being.

After all, on the much-vaunted day of vengeance back in 1970, it wasn't just the Italians who found themselves kicked out of Libya. Gaddafi also banished the country's Jewish population. Gaddafi urges the formation of international guerrilla groups. He calls for a jihad against Israel, a waging of a continual war. This stuff plays well on the podium, but among certain Arab leaders, leaders like Sadat, it will grow tiresome. So Gaddafi changes tack. War against Israel must take another path, he decides.

He will be at the forefront of the Palestinian struggle, the champion of their dispossessed people. In the next episode of Real Dictators In Munich, West Germany A terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympic Games Turns a festival of sport into a terrifying nightmare Gaddafi becomes the patron of independence movements And terror groups of all persuasions

Discovering a plot to depose him as leader, he responds without mercy. The world cannot sit idly by. As Gaddafi tightens his grip on power, long-simmering tension with America finally comes to the boil. That's next time on Real Dictators. Paul McGann. The Colonel Gaddafi story was written and produced by Jeff Dawson. The show was created by Pascal Hughes. Produced by Joel Dudell. Editing and music by Oliver Baines and Dory McCauley. Sound design, mix and mastering by Tom Pink. Editing and additional effects by George Tapp. Follow Noiser Podcasts on Twitter for news about upcoming series. If you haven't already,

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